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Theo Bronkhorst

Leonard Ncube Victoria Falls Reporter
THE trial of professional hunter Theodor Herbert Christian Bronkhorst who is charged with facilitating the killing of Cecil the lion, failed to kick off yesterday. Bronkhorst’s lawyer, Advocate Pepertua Dube, of Advocate’s Chambers in Bulawayo, instructed by Givemore Muviringi of Dube and Company applied to the High Court for a review of a judgment by Hwange regional magistrate Dambudzo Malunga recently which dismissed the defence application to have the charges thrown out.

Malunga dismissed two applications by the defence which sought to have the charges quashed and have the matter referred to the Constitutional Court prompting the defence to apply for a review at the Bulawayo High Court.

The trial can only start once the High Court ruling is out. “Come back on November 25. The defence applied for a review at the High Court and we’ve been waiting for the outcome which will be made available on November 25,” said Malunga.

Malunga had ruled that Bronkhorst had a case to answer while dismissing the applications on October 20.

“It’s the court’s view that the application made by the defence was for clarification of the charge. The offence is clearly disclosed in the charge sheet and the accused as a holder of a professional hunter’s licence should’ve known how to prevent an illegal hunt,” said magistrate Malunga.

Bronkhorst, 52, of Riverside suburb in Bulawayo has not been asked to plead. He is out on $1,000 bail and reports once a week at Hillside Police Station in Bulawayo. Cecil, the collared lion which had a GPS tracker on its neck, was monitored by researchers at Oxford University in the UK.

American dentist Walter Palmer allegedly shot and killed the lion using a bow and arrow after luring it out of its protected area with another animal’s carcass in early July. It is alleged that Palmer paid about $50,000 to Bronkhorst and his associates.

Namatirayi Ngwasha prosecuted.